Re: funniest mistake/act of disobedience


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Posted by Jay Bertolet on June 30, 2001 at 09:31:04:

In Reply to: funniest mistake/act of disobedience posted by James McNeil on June 29, 2001 at 13:29:56:

After my third year of college, I was recruited by my college's Assistant Band Director to spend the 8 week summer session at Interlochen in the College Division (this was back in the days when they had such a thing). The director had recruited a bunch of the best players in school because he wanted to program some really great pieces that summer, especially for the brass. After sitting around doing literally nothing for 7 weeks, the final concert had Beethoven 2nd, Dvorak Serenade for Winds & Strings, Barber Adagio for Strings, and the Prelude to Die Meistersinger. This was the only piece I performed in the whole 8 weeks and you can imagine I was chomping at the bit. During the rehearsals, it was obvious that the strings couldn't really handle the Wagner. The director actually threatened to cancel the piece during the dress rehearsal but finally relented and let the piece go on. The brass players, all of whom were as frustrated as I at having a useless summer, got together before the concert and decided to give the conductor something to remember. When the director gave the downbeat of the Wagner in the concert, the brass section let loose and began playing just as loud as we possibly could, way past anything tasteful. Instantly, the conductor's hand came up but nothing changed. We continued to pound away during the whole piece, never letting up for one instant. The conductor continued to conduct the piece with his head down and a really disgusted look on his face. After the concert, I went backstage and thanked the conductor for a wonderful summer. Unfortunately, this came back to haunt me because the Assistant Band Conductor was promoted to Assistant Orchestra Conductor a couple of years later. The two orchestra conductors at college run the auditions and decide who is in or not and, coincidentally, I didn't make orchestra my final year of college. But it was worth it!


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